THE REVISED WTO AGREEMENT ON GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT (GPA): KEY DESIGN FEATURES AND SIGNIFICANCE FOR GLOBAL TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT

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1 ARTICLES THE REVISED WTO AGREEMENT ON GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT (GPA): KEY DESIGN FEATURES AND SIGNIFICANCE FOR GLOBAL TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT ROBERT D. ANDERSON AND ANNA CAROLINE MULLER * ABSTRACT The World Trade Organization s (WTO s) plurilateral Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA or the Agreement ) is an important ongoing success story for the Organization. In the spring of 2012, the GPA Parties completed a full revision of the Agreement, with regard to both its text and market access commitments under it. Since then, the revised GPA has entered into force, and its membership has gradually broadened. These developments are of importance not only in themselves, but also for the international trading system and its potential future evolution. The GPA s successful renegotiation, the continuing growth of its membership, and its vitality as an instrument of public policy were not achieved through happenstance. This Article discusses a number of specific design features of the GPA that clearly facilitated the successful conclusion of the renegotiation and that, as such, may in the future be relevant to other areas of global trade liberalization. In addition to the Agreement s plurilateral nature, of particular interest are the approach taken with respect to application of the most-favorednation treatment (MFN) principle in the Agreement; the GPA s continuing strong emphasis on principles of reciprocity in market access concessions; and its * Robert D. Anderson: Counsellor and Team Leader for Government Procurement and Competition Policy, Intellectual Property, Government Procurement and Competition Division, WTO Secretariat; Honorary Professor, School of Law, University of Nottingham, UK; External Faculty Member, World Trade Institute, University of Bern, Switzerland. Anna Caroline Mü ller: Legal Affairs Officer, Intellectual Property, Government Procurement and Competition Division, WTO Secretariat. The initial version of this Article was presented at the American Society of International Law (ASIL) International Economic Law Interest Group Conference held at the Georgetown University Law Center from September 30 to October 1, 2016, and was subsequently issued as WTO Working Paper ERSD , wpaps_e.htm (last visited Dec. 13, 2017). Helpful comments from conference participants are gratefully acknowledged, as are useful discussions with colleagues and collaborators including Sue Arrowsmith, Kamala Dawar, Jean Heilman Grier, Bill Kovacic, Kodjo Osei-Lah, Philippe Pelletier, Steven Schooner and Antony Taubman. Nadezhda Sporysheva assisted with finalization of the Article. The paper has been prepared strictly in the authors personal capacities. The views expressed should not be attributed to the WTO, its Secretariat, or its Members. 2017, Robert D. Anderson and Anna Caroline Müller. 949

2 GEORGETOWN JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW approach to special and differential treatment for developing countries, in all of which it differs from approaches which are widely used in other WTO Agreements. Apart from the above, the GPA revision is important for the merging of trade and good governance concerns that it exemplifies. As discussed in this Article, the themes of governance and the sound management of public resources that are treated in the revised Agreement were not afterthoughts to the renegotiation. Rather, they permeate the revised text and received focused attention from the Parties in their own right. As well, the GPA has direct implications for investment policy and for domestic economic reforms, and is an important tool of e-commerce. Moreover, the revision has made possible very significant synergies between the GPA and other international instruments and activities in reducing barriers to participation and strengthening governance in public procurement markets. For all these reasons, the revised Agreement is likely to have a wider impact than meets the eye, and well merits the support and attention that it has received from the participating WTO Member governments. I. INTRODUCTION II. FROM THE TOKYO ROUND CODE TO THE GPA 2012: IMPLEMENTATION OF A MODERN INTERNATIONAL TREATY REGIME TO SUPPORT OPEN MARKETS AND GOOD GOVERNANCE IN PUBLIC PROCUREMENT A. Origins of the GPA: The Tokyo Round Code B. The GPA C. The Road to the New Agreement: The GPA D. Outcomes of the Renegotiation Expansion of the Parties Market Access Commitments The Revised GPA Text Looking to the Future: The New Work Programmes of the Committee on Government Procurement E. The Continuing Growth of the Agreement s Membership III. THE KEY DESIGN FEATURES UNDERLYING THE GPA S SUCCESS A. The Plurilateral Nature of the Agreement B. Complementarity with the GPA Parties Commitments under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) C. The GPA s Role in Ensuring Non-Discriminatory Treatment of Foreign Direct Investment and Cross-Border Trade in Government Procurement Markets [Vol. 48

3 WTO AGREEMENT ON GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT D. The GPA s Limited Application to Covered Procurements and Flexible Coverage E. Restricted Application of the National Treatment and Most-Favored-Nation Treatment Principles and Reciprocity of Parties Coverage Maintaining the Incentive to Join: Limiting the Benefit of National Treatment and Most-Favored Nation Principles The Freedom to Conclude Regional Trade Agreements with Non-Parties The Role of Reciprocity in Conditioning Parties Coverage Commitments A Further Application of Reciprocity Principles: the New Arbitration Procedures of the Committee on Government Procurement F. The GPA s Distinct Approach to Special and Differential Treatment (S&D) of Developing Countries G. The GPA as a Self-Renewing Instrument H. Summary Observations IV. THE POLICY SIGNIFICANCE OF THE GPA: TOWARD A MERGING OF MARKET OPENNESS,INTERNAL POLICY REFORM, AND GOOD GOVERNANCE CONCERNS A. The GPA as an Essential Tool of Good Governance The GPA s Supporting Role in the Global Struggle Against Corruption The GPA s Role in Deterring Inter-Supplier Collusion B. The GPA as a Tool for Promoting an Inclusive Global Economy Unlocking Procurement Markets for Disadvantaged Groups Through Fair Procedures and Non-Discrimination The GPA as an E-Commerce Facilitator C. Summary Observations V. SYNERGIES BETWEEN THE GPA AND OTHER RELEVANT INTERNATIONAL INSTRUMENTS A. Synergies with Other Global Instruments and Initiatives B. Synergies with Regional Trade Agreements VI. CONCLUSION ] 951

4 GEORGETOWN JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW I. INTRODUCTION The World Trade Organization (WTO) plurilateral Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA or Agreement ) is an important, ongoing success story for the WTO. In the spring of 2012, the GPA Parties completed a full revision of the Agreement, with regard to both its text and to market access commitments under it. 1 This represented the successful culmination of more than a decade of work that had been undertaken in the framework of the WTO s Committee on Government Procurement ( the Committee ). 2 The revised Agreement entered into force on April 6, 2014, only two years following the renegotiation s conclusion. 3 Of equal importance, the GPA s plurilateral membership, which, by definition, does not include all WTO Members, has increased very substantially, from twenty-two WTO members covered at the beginning of 1996 to forty-seven at present, and it continues to grow. 4 The significance of these developments goes beyond the mere context of the GPA. 5 Several points can be noted in this regard. First, from the traditional standpoint of trade liberalization, it has been 1. Revised Agreement on Government Procurement, Mar. 30, 2012, Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization, Annex 4(b), 1915 U.N.T.S. 103 [hereinafter 2012 GPA]. The Article also references two prior versions of the GPA, one signed in 1979 and a second revised version signed in Agreement on Government Procurement, Apr. 12, 1979, General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, 1235 U.N.T.S. 258 [hereinafter 1979 GPA]; Agreement on Government Procurement, Apr. 15, 1994, Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization, Annex 4(b), 1915 U.N.T.S. 103 [hereinafter 1994 GPA]; World Trade Organization, Comm. on Gov t Procurement, Decision on the Outcomes of the Negotiations under Article XXIV:7 of the Agreement on Government Procurement Apr. 2, 2012, WTO Doc. GPA/113 [hereinafter WTO Doc. GPA/113]. For online access to all WTO Agreements, see WTO Legal Texts, WORLD TRADE ORG., (last visited Nov. 14, 2017). 2. See Committee on Government Procurement Adopts Revised Agreement, WORLD TRADE ORG. (Mar. 30, 2012), (last visited Nov. 13, 2017). 3. See Revised WTO Agreement on Government Procurement Enters into Force, WORLD TRADE ORG. (Apr. 7, 2014), (last visited Nov. 13, 2017). 4. For an up-to-date list of GPA Parties, see Agreement on Government Procurement: Parties, Observers and Accessions, WORLD TRADE ORG., memobs_e.htm (last visited Nov. 13, 2017). 5. See generally Robert D. Anderson, The Conclusion of the Renegotiation of the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement: What it Means for the Agreement and for the World Economy, 21 PUB. PROCUREMENT L. REV. 83 (2012) [hereinafter Anderson, The Conclusion of the Renegotiation]; Robert D. Anderson et al., Feature Comment, The WTO s Revised Government Procurement Agreement: An Important Milestone Toward Greater Market Access and Transparency in Global Public Procurement Markets, 54 GOV T CONTRACTOR 1, 1-6 (2012) [hereinafter Anderson et al., An Important Milestone]. 952 [Vol. 48

5 WTO AGREEMENT ON GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT estimated that including the additional market access provided through the renegotiation, the Agreement now offers an estimated $1.7 trillion in market access opportunities annually. 6 The GPA therefore constitutes an important modern example of successful and consequential market liberalization within the WTO framework. Indeed, until the more recently concluded WTO Agreement on Trade Facilitation at the WTO s Ninth Ministerial Conference in Bali in 2013, the GPA renegotiation represented arguably the most significant negotiating result to be achieved in the WTO since the Organization was launched in To be sure, the outcomes of the renegotiation were not limited to market access gains. As a second important element, the revision effectively modernized the Agreement s text to take account of modern procurement practices, such as the use of electronic procurement tools. 8 In fact, with the 2012 revision, the Agreement has become an important tool of e-commerce. 9 Other new features include the enhanced emphasis on measures to fight corruption and promote good governance, new transitional measures for developing countries that are adapted to the countries development needs at the time of accession and an overall more flexible approach with regard to the transparency and procedural rules to facilitate all GPA Parties implementation of the Agreement. 10 In effect, the text establishes the GPA as a modern instrument embracing and incentivizing the use of best practices in government procurement internationally. 11 As a result, it has already given the Agreement an important role in guiding policy reforms, particularly in transition economies. 12 This experience points clearly to 6. See Government Procurement: Agreement on Government Procurement, WORLD TRADE ORG., (last visited Nov. 13, 2017). 7. Cf. Anderson, The Conclusion of the Renegotiation, supra note 5, at 84 ( [I]t has added significant value to the sum of market access commitments by the Parties under the Agreement, in the range of at least US $80 billion to $100 billion annually. This represents a very significant achievement for the participating WTO Members and the Organization in the present economic and political environment. ). 8. See discussion infra Sections II.D.2, IV.B.2. and sources cited therein. 9. See discussion infra Part IV. 10. See infra Section II.D.2. and sources cited therein. 11. See Robert D. Anderson, The WTO Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA): An Emerging Tool of Global Integration and Good Governance,L. IN TRANSITION ONLINE 1, 7 (2010). 12. These are countries currently in the process of transition to market-based economies. See Understanding the WTO: The Organization: Special Policies, WORLD TRADE ORG., org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/tif_e/org5_e.htm (last visited Nov. 14, 2017). For further detail on the role of the GPA in guiding policy reforms, see infra Part IV. For related commentary, see Robert D. Anderson, William E. Kovacic & Anna Caroline Müller, Promoting Competition and Deterring Corruption in Public Procurement Markets: Synergies with Trade Liberalization, 2PUB. PROCURE 2017] 953

6 GEORGETOWN JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW a more holistic vision of international trade law in the 21 st century, in which market access objectives are effectively complemented by good governance concerns. As a third integral outcome of the 2012 negotiating package, a set of Work Programmes adopted by the Parties provide a clear path for further exchanges of views among the GPA Parties that promote increased transparency and can serve as a basis for further convergence around internationally accepted best practices in public procurement. 13 The Programmes address matters such as market access for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and sustainability considerations in the implementation of public procurement policy, in addition to other matters concerning the administration of the Agreement. 14 Indeed, both the Preamble and the operational provisions of the Agreement manifest a clear concern with the efficient and effective management of public resources in addition to explicit trade promotion concerns. 15 The GPA, therefore, goes beyond so-called classic market-access-based international trade law and directly addresses concerns that are relevant not only to exporters and importers, but also to governments and citizens more generally. The GPA s successful renegotiation, the continuing growth of its membership, and its vitality as an instrument of public policy were not achieved through happenstance. While much credit is due to the Committee s then-chairman, Mr. Nicholas Niggli, and the lead negotiators, the GPA contains a number of specific design features that clearly facilitated the successful conclusion of the renegotiation. In addition to the Agreement s plurilateral nature, these helpful features include: (i) the tailored nature of each Party s market access commitments; (ii) the approach taken with respect to application of the national MENT L. REV. 77 (2017). For a previous version of this paper published as part of the E15 initiative on Strengthening the Global Trade and Investment System for Sustainable Development, E15 Expert Group on Competition Policy and the Trade System, see Robert D. Anderson, William E. Kovacic & Anna Caroline Müller, Think Piece: Promoting Competition and Deterring Corruption in Public Procurement Markets: Synergies with Trade Liberalisation, E15 EXPERT GROUP ON COMPETITION POL Y & THE TRADE SYS. (ICTSD/World Econ. Forum, Geneva, Switzerland Feb. 2016), org/publications/promoting-competition-and-deterring-corruption-in-public-procurementmarkets-synergies-with-trade-liberalisation. 13. See Anderson, The Conclusion of the Renegotiation, supra note 5, at See Agreement on Government Procurement: Work Programmes,WORLD TRADE ORG., wto.org/english/tratop_e/gproc_e/gpa_wk_prog_e.htm (last visited Nov. 14, 2017). 15. See generally Sue Arrowsmith & Robert D. Anderson, The WTO Regime on Government Procurement: Past, Present and Future, in THE WTO REGIME ON GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT: CHAL LENGE AND REFORM (Sue Arrowsmith & Robert D. Anderson eds., 2011). 954 [Vol. 48

7 WTO AGREEMENT ON GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT treatment (NT) and most-favored-nation treatment (MFN) principles in the Agreement; (iii) the GPA s continuing strong emphasis on principles of reciprocity in market access concessions; and (iv) its approach to special and differential treatment for developing countries, in all of which it differs from approaches that are widely used in other WTO Agreements. 16 At the same time, whether such approaches are widely applicable in other areas of trade policy is a complicated question, and one that this Article leaves largely to be resolved in other contexts. The themes of good governance and the sound management of public resources were not afterthoughts to the GPA renegotiation. Rather, they permeated the revised text and received focused attention from the Parties in their own right. The Agreement has direct implications for investment policy and domestic economic reforms. And the revision has made possible very significant synergies between the GPA and other international instruments and activities in reducing barriers to participation and strengthening governance in public procurement markets. Each of these aspects receives attention in this Article. This Article is structured as follows. Part II revisits the origins of the Agreement, the processes involved in the recent renegotiation, and the discrete outcomes of the negotiations. Part III elaborates on the specific design features of the GPA which facilitated its successful renegotiation. Part IV reviews the role of the GPA as a comprehensive policy tool integrating good governance and investment promotion elements in international trade law. Part V outlines the abovementioned synergies between the revised GPA and other international instruments and initiatives, and Part VI provides concluding remarks. II. FROM THE TOKYO ROUND CODE TO THE GPA 2012: IMPLEMENTATION OF A MODERN INTERNATIONAL TREATY REGIME TO SUPPORT OPEN MARKETS AND GOOD GOVERNANCE IN PUBLIC PROCUREMENT The revised GPA of 2012 builds upon two previous versions of the Agreement, the initial one forged in the course of the Tokyo Round of multilateral trade negotiations and the second negotiated in parallel to the Uruguay Round. Each succeeding version increased the extent of relevant markets covered, and elaborated on the above-mentioned special design features of the Agreement, leading to the Agreement s continuous improvement over time. This section outlines related developments. 16. See infra Part III for further analysis of these features. 2017] 955

8 GEORGETOWN JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW A. Origins of the GPA: The Tokyo Round Code 17 The Tokyo Round Code on Government Procurement was the modern GPA s early forerunner. 18 The Code, which was signed in 1979 and came into force in 1981, grew out of work undertaken initially in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that identified extensive patterns of discrimination in that organization s members government procurement activities. 19 As will be discussed below in Part III, such discriminatory practices were effectively excluded from the ambit of the main non-discrimination provisions of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and subsequently the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). Moreover, while in some cases, the discrimination was based on explicit statutory mandates, in other cases it was not. A clear conclusion to emerge from the work done in the OECD was that general nondiscrimination rules by themselves (as in the GATT and GATS) would not be sufficient to end discriminatory practices in the government procurement field. 20 Rather, a more subject-specific agreement also embodying significant procedural and transparency rules would be required. 21 This core insight continues to inform the structure and content of the GPA, up to the present. The Tokyo Round Code, like the present and 1994 GPA, nonetheless embodied explicit national treatment and most-favored nation obligations in addition to transparency and related rules. 22 The Code s coverage was significantly more limited than the current GPA in two key respects: it covered only the procurement of goods and it only applied to central government entities. 23 The Code s text itself recognized that it was only a starting point: its Article IX.6 provided for eventual negotiations to extend its coverage of entities and to cover certain services and construction services. 24 While minor modifications were eventually made to the Code itself, leading to a formal amend 17. See Arrowsmith & Anderson, supra note 15, at 4-5, 14. See also, Annet Blank & Gabrielle Marceau, The History of the Government Procurement Negotiations Since 1945, 4PUB. PROCUREMENT L. REV. 77, 79 (1996). 18. See Blank & Marceau, supra note 17, at See generally ORG. FOR ECON. CO-OPERATION &DEV., GOVERNMENT PURCHASING IN EUROPE, NORTH AMERICA AND JAPAN REGULATIONS AND PROCEDURES (1966). 20. Arrowsmith & Anderson, supra note 15, at Id. 22. Blank & Marceau, supra note 17, at Id. at GPA, supra note 1, art. IX. 956 [Vol. 48

9 WTO AGREEMENT ON GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT ment in 1988, 25 the expansion of its scope to cover procurement of services in addition to goods and its broadening to cover sub-central in addition to central government purchasing occurred only with the adoption of the Code s successor, namely the 1994 Agreement on Government Procurement (the GPA 1994). B. The GPA 1994 The GPA 1994 brought about important changes to both the scope and content of the Agreement. To begin with, as just discussed, its coverage was expanded to include sub-central and other entities, in addition to the procurement of services and construction services. 26 The GPA 1994 also included important new institutional requirements for bid protest or domestic review systems to rule on supplier complaints, 27 and strengthened disciplines on offsets. 28 In the negotiations to broaden the coverage of the new Agreement, the question of reciprocity, i.e., the balance of concessions, emerged as a central element of the discussions. 29 Due to the important changes and greatly enhanced scope of the resulting GPA, it was established as a completely new Agreement, rather than as an amended version of the Tokyo Round Code. Although the negotiations leading to the 1994 GPA were formally separate from the Uruguay Round negotiations, the main players in both negotiations considered them to be intrinsically linked. 30 The progress on the negotiations on a new GPA was dependent on progress in the Uruguay Round and vice versa. 31 In order to overcome unresolved questions with regard to coverage in time for the conclusion of the Round, Parties had recourse to the insertion of significant reciprocity clauses, 32 both sector- and country-specific, as well as negotiated notes 33 that limited the application of the non-discrimination principle contained in the Agreement in important ways. While some of 25. See Government Procurement: Agreement on Government Procurement, supra note Id. 27. See infra Section IV.A Offsets in government procurement include mandatory (government-imposed) local content, technology licensing, investment, counter-trade and similar actions or requirements. For a legal definition in the context of the 2012 GPA, see 2012 GPA, supra note 1, art. I(1). 29. See Blank & Marceau, supra note 17, at Id. at Id. 32. See 1994 GPA, supra note 1, app. I. 33. Id. 2017] 957

10 GEORGETOWN JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW these reciprocity clauses and notes were withdrawn in the course of the negotiations, a number remained. As will be explained below, the flexibility these mechanisms introduced was an important feature of the negotiation leading to the GPA C. The Road to the New Agreement: The GPA 2012 The renegotiation and adoption of a revised Agreement was clearly foreseen already in the GPA 1994: Article XXIV.7(b) of the 1994 Agreement provided a mandate for the Committee to serve as a forum for negotiations with a view to improving the Agreement and achieving the greatest possible extension of its coverage among all Parties. 34 The negotiations were to commence not later than the end of the third year from the date of entry into force of the Agreement and to seek to eliminate remaining discriminatory measures and practices. 35 The Committee on Government Procurement also expressed, soon after the start of the renegotiation, its desire to facilitate accession to the Agreement by additional Parties, notably developing countries. 36 Preliminary discussions regarding the eventual negotiations commenced as early as the first year of the entry into force of the 1994 Agreement. 37 At its 1996 formal annual meeting, 38 the Committee agreed to undertake an early review starting in 1997, in view of the negotiating mandate embodied in Article XXIV.7 (b) and (c) of the Agreement. 39 The review would cover: expansion of the coverage of the Agreement; elimination of discriminatory measures and practices which distort open procurement; and simplification and improvement of the Agreement, including, where appropriate, adaptation to advances in the area of information technology Id. at art. XXIV. 35. Id. at art. XXIV. 36. See Sue Arrowsmith, Reviewing the GPA: The Role and Development of the Plurilateral Agreement After Doha, 5 J. INT L ECON L (2002); see also, e.g., Rep. of the Comm. on Gov t Procurement, 23, WTO Doc. GPA/8 (1996) [hereinafter WTO Doc. GPA/8]; Rep. of the Comm. on Gov t Procurement, 21, WTO Doc. GPA/19 (1997) [hereinafter WTO Doc. GPA/19]. 37. See Anderson & Arrowsmith, supra note 15, at 21; Robert D. Anderson & Kodjo Osei-Lah, The Coverage Negotiations Under the Agreement on Government Procurement: Context, Mandate, Process and Prospects, in THE WTO REGIME ON GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT: CHALLENGE AND REFORM, supra note 15, at WTO Doc. GPA/8, supra note 36, 2, Id ; Rep. of the Comm. on Gov t Procurement, 21-22, WTO Doc. WT/L/190 (1996). 40. WTO Doc. GPA/8, supra note 36, 21; see generally Anderson & Osei-Lah, supra note [Vol. 48

11 WTO AGREEMENT ON GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT Work on the Agreement s review was formally initiated in February 1997 in consultations among the Parties, and continued with further consultations later that year. 41 An informal Checklist of Issues was kept up to date in order to monitor progress in the negotiations. 42 Among the issues considered at this stage of the review process were: (i) nondiscrimination in connection with information technology; (ii) improvements in the structure and presentation of the Agreement; and (iii) discriminatory provisions in Appendices to the Agreement. 43 In 1999 and 2000 consultations regarding the revision of the text continued in informal sessions. 44 In February 2002, the Chairman of the Committee proposed a Timetable and Work Programme for the Negotiations under Article XXIV:7 of the Agreement, which was agreed by the Committee. 45 Just as the plurilateral negotiations resulting in the GPA 1994 were not formally part of the Uruguay Round negotiations, the revision of the GPA was never part of the multilateral Doha Round of negotiations in the WTO. 46 However, while the 1994 GPA negotiations benefitted from the coinciding, dynamic Uruguay Round negotiations, the same was not needed for the 2012 revision of the GPA. That the GPA renegotiation was a stand-alone agenda enabled it to move forward on its own parallel track distinct from the much wider Doha Round of negotiations. 47 The GPA Parties negotiators reached agreement on most elements of the revised GPA text in December To ensure that the market access aspect of the negotiations was not allowed to linger, it was agreed that the text could only be adopted if any outstanding (final) provisions were agreed upon, and a mutually satisfactory outcome in the coverage 41. WTO Doc. GPA/19, supra note 36, See Anderson & Arrowsmith, supra note 15, at WTO Doc. GPA/19, supra note 36, Rep. of the Comm. on Gov t Procurement, at 4-5, WTO Doc. GPA/30 (1999); Rep. of the Comm. on Gov t Procurement, at 4-5, WTO Doc. GPA/44 (2000). 45. Rep. of the Comm. on Gov t Procurement, at 6-8, WTO Doc. GPA/73 (2002). See also Anderson & Osei-Lah, supra note 37 at See Understanding the WTO: The Doha Agenda, WORLD TRADE ORG., english/thewto_e/whatis_e/tif_e/doha1_e.htm (last visited Nov. 14, 2017). 47. To be sure, very important negotiating outcomes regarding the Doha Round have been achieved in subsequent years, in particular as a result of the Bali and Nairobi Ministerial Meetings of 2013 and 2015, respectively. See World Trade Organization, Ministerial Declaration of 7 December 2013, 1.4, WTO Doc. WT/Min(13)/Dec (2013); World Trade Organization, Ministerial Declaration of 21 December 2015, 23, WTO Doc. WT/Min(15)/Dec (2015). 48. See discussion infra Section II.D ] 959

12 GEORGETOWN JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW negotiations would also be found. 49 All these elements formally came together in March 2012, after the political conclusion of the renegotiation had been reached in December Final details of the coverage negotiations were still being hashed out on the morning of the day on which the decision to that effect was taken by the GPA Parties Ministers in December Procedurally important for the successful conclusion of the negotiations was a Roadmap that had been proposed by Committee Chairman Niggli in 2010 and updated in line with progress achieved in The Roadmap guided the Committee in its parallel discussions on the various aspects of the renegotiations, including market access, the final provisions of the revised text, a number of Future Work Programmes 53 ; and the approach to be followed in bringing the revised agreement into effect. 54 The proposed Work Programmes responded to socio-political concerns shared by most or all the GPA Parties and to continuing negotiating interests of at least some of the Parties that could not be fully resolved in the negotiation and were therefore recognized as topics to be addressed as part of the continued work of the Committee. 55 As a further means of addressing concerns regarding perceived imbalances in coverage offered, some Parties used the possibility under 49. See Rep. of the Comm. on Gov t Procurement, 20, WTO Doc. GPA/89 (2006); see also Robert D. Anderson, Making Law in New WTO Subject Areas, in A History of Law and Lawyers in the GATT/WTO: The Development of the Rule of Law in the Multilateral Trading System, 275, 285 (Gabrielle Marceau ed., 2015). 50. See Rep. of the Comm. on Gov t Procurement, 6, WTO Doc. GPA/116 (2012) [hereinafter WTO Doc. GPA/116]. 51. Historic Deal Reached on Government Procurement, WORLD TRADE ORG. (Dec. 15, 2011), see also Robert D. Anderson & Anna Caroline Müller, The Revised WTO Agreement on Government Procurement as an Emerging Pillar of the World Trading System: Recent Developments, 7(1) TRADE, L.&DEV. 42 (2015); Robert D. Anderson, The Conclusion of the Renegotiation of the World Trade Organization Agreement on Government Procurement: What it Means for the Agreement and for the World Economy, 12 Pub. Procurement L. Rev. 83, 85 (2012). 52. See Anderson, The Conclusion of the Renegotiation, supra note 5, at See WTO Doc. GPA/116, supra note 50, See Anderson, The Conclusion of the Renegotiation, supra note 5 (detailing the processes and tactics leading to the conclusion of the GPA renegotiation). 55. See infra Section II.D.3; see also Anderson & Müller, supra note 51, at 63. As in the original 1994 Agreement, an eventual further round of negotiations is foreseen in the revised Agreement. See 2012 GPA, supra note 1, art. XXII.7 (implying aims of improving the Agreement, progressively reducing and eliminating discriminatory measures, and achieving the greatest possible extension of its coverage among all Parties). 960 [Vol. 48

13 WTO AGREEMENT ON GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT the GPA to introduce country-specific derogations and reciprocity notes in Parties coverage schedules to take account of and adapt to different levels of ambition. 56 The European Union (EU), in particular, desiring to open up procurement markets to an important degree, saw itself forced to introduce different levels of market access offered to different trading partners, depending on the extent of their own liberalization efforts. 57 While GPA Parties strove to and did, to an extent, reduce such derogations and notes in the course of the negotiations, the flexibility provided by these balancing tools remained essential in reaching a successful outcome to the negotiations. Under the terms of the Protocol, politically agreed upon on December 15, 2011, 58 and formally adopted on March 30, 2012, 59 the revised Agreement was to come into effect upon submission of the required instruments of acceptance by two thirds of the Parties to the Agreement. 60 In light of the progress made in the submission of acceptances by various Parties, at a separate ministerial-level meeting held on December 3, 2013, on the margins of the WTO s Ninth Ministerial Conference, GPA Parties affirmed their shared objective of bringing a revised version of the Agreement into force as soon as possible, and in any event no later than March 31, At that time, seven out of the required ten parties had ratified: Liechtenstein; Norway; Canada; Chinese Taipei; the United States; Hong Kong, China; and the European Union. 62 During the meeting, several other Parties indicated that 56. See Anderson & Müller, supra note 51, at In fact, the entity coverage offered by European Union in its Appendix I schedules provides for four different levels of coverage for different Parties, based on the other Parties own level of commitments as perceived by the EU. In the course of the negotiations, these were referred to informally as First Class, Business Class, Premium Economy, and Economy Class coverage. See e.g. Entities, 2 to Annex 1 of Appendix I of the European Union to the Revised GPA, WORLD TRADE ORG., EuropeanUnion&AnnexNo=1&ContentCulture=en&AdvancedSearch=False (last visited Nov. 14, 2017). See also European Commission Press Release IP/11/1556, Successful Conclusion of the WTO s Government Procurement Negotiation: EU Succeeds in Gaining More Market Access (Dec. 15, 2011). 58. Historic Deal Reached on Government Procurement, supra note GPA, supra note 1, Id. art. XXII World Trade Organization, Comm. on Gov t Procurement, Declaration on the Ministerial- Level Meeting of 3 December 2013, 1, WTO Doc. GPA/122 (2013) [hereinafter GPA/122]. 62. See Press Release, World Trade Org, Ministers Greet Progress on Ratification of Revised Agreement on Government Procurement (Dec. 4, 2013), news13_e/gpro_04dec13_e.htm (last visited Nov. 14, 2017); WTO Doc. GPA/122, supra note 61, ] 961

14 GEORGETOWN JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW they would submit their acceptances in the following weeks. 63 The Protocol entered into force on April 6, To date, all but one of the remaining Parties have formally accepted the revised Agreement. 64 The remaining Party to the GPA 1994 that has yet to submit its instrument of acceptance, Switzerland, has made clear that it fully intends to eventually accept the revised Agreement. 65 The delay in ratification is occasioned by the necessity and opportunity created for it to undertake internal legal reforms to create, for the first time in Switzerland, a comprehensive and unified set of procurement rules and regulations for both the federal and the cantonal (subcentral) level. 66 Overall, the GPA renegotiation has clearly demonstrated that the plurilateral nature of the Agreement, which allows like-minded WTO Members to negotiate relatively ambitious market access outcomes, together with the flexibility provided by individually-determined marketaccess commitments based on reciprocity, can deliver important outcomes. These outcomes are described further in the following sections. D. Outcomes of the Renegotiation As outlined above, the elements of agreement adopted by the GPA Parties on March 30, 2012, concerned the coverage of the GPA, the text of the Agreement, and the Future Work Programmes of the WTO body responsible for the Agreement s administration, namely the Committee on Government Procurement. The following section provides additional information on each of these three elements Expansion of the Parties Market Access Commitments The first of the three elements of the renegotiation concerned the successful and flexible expansion of Parties market access commit 63. Id. 64. See Rep. of the Comm. on Gov t Procurement, 2.1, WTO Doc. GPA/145 (2017). 65. See id. 66. See Revision des Beschaffungsrechts [Revision of the Procurement Law], BESCHAFFUNGSKON FERENZ DES BUNDES BKB [Procurement Conference of the Federal Government BKB], bkb.admin.ch/bkb/de/home/oeffentliches-beschaffungswesen/revision-des-beschaffungsrechts. html (last visited Nov. 14, 2017). 67. For further information, see generally Anderson, The Conclusion of the Renegotiation, supra note 5; Anderson et al., An Important Milestone, supra note 5; Philippe Pelletier, La révision de 2012 de l Accord de l OMC sur les marchés publics: son contexte et les dimensions de son champ d application [The 2012 Revision of the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement: Its Context and the Scope of its Application], 51 CAN. Y.B. INT L L. 99 (2014); see Anderson & Müller, supra note [Vol. 48

15 WTO AGREEMENT ON GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT ments, based on principles of reciprocity. In this regard, it is important to emphasize that the GPA has never provided, or even been envisioned to provide, all-encompassing, universal coverage commitments. As set out in its Article II, the Agreement applies only to procurement as specified in each Party s annexes to Appendix I of the Agreement. 68 In other words, in order to be covered, a procurement must (i) be carried out by a procuring entity that each Party has listed in Annexes 1 to 3 of its market access schedules (Appendix I Annexes); (ii) concern a good or a service or construction service found respectively in Annexes 4 to 6 of Appendix I, and (iii) be of an estimated value not less than certain threshold values, which are specified in each Party s Annexes 1 to 3 to Appendix I. 69 BOX 1. THE STRUCTURE OF GPA COVERAGE SCHEDULES (APPENDIX I OF THE AGREEMENT) For each GPA Party, Appendix I is divided into seven Annexes which deal, respectively, with (i) central government entities covered by the Agreement; (ii) covered sub-central government entities; (iii) other covered entities (e.g. utilities and SOEs); (iv) coverage of goods; (v) services coverage; (vi) coverage of construction services; and (vii) any general notes. Annex 1 Central Government Entities Annex 2 Sub-Central Government Entities Annex 3 Other Entities Annex 4 Goods Annex 5 Services Annex 6 Construction Services Annex 7 General Notes 68. See 2012 GPA, supra note 1, art. II. 69. In practice, the assessment of whether particular procurements are covered by the Agreement has now been substantially facilitated by the so-called e-gpa procurement portal that has been created by the Secretariat with the support and guidance of the Committee. See Integrated Government Procurement Market Access Information (e-gpa) Portal, WORLD TRADE ORG., (last visited Nov. 14, 2017). 2017] 963

16 GEORGETOWN JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW The Annexes also specify the threshold values above which individual procurements are subject to the GPA disciplines. In addition, the Annexes of most Parties contain notes that qualify the application of the Agreement. In principle, all goods are covered if procured by a covered entity and not excluded specifically. Parties are free to choose a generic or a list approach and, in the case of the latter, they can adopt a positive-list or a negative-list approach. In general, GPA Parties use the United Nations Provisional Central Product Classification (CPC) classification numbers, as defined in the Services classification List (MTN.GNS/W/120) for services classifications. Reproduced from Robert D. Anderson, Anna Caroline Muller & Phillipe Pelletier, Regional Trade Agreements and Procurement Rules: Facilitators or Hindrances? 12 (Eur. U. Inst. Working Paper, RSCAS No. 81, 2015), papers.cfm?abstract_id= ## (last visited Nov. 14, 2017). The additional market access provided in the renegotiation has been estimated by the WTO Secretariat as equivalent to $100 billion of commercial opportunities each year. 70 Parties have: added more than 600 additional central, local and other government agencies, including Canada s sub-central level of government (i.e. its provinces and territories); 71 for the first time, included build-operate-transfer contracts, a form of public-private partnership and another significant addition to coverage (three Parties); 72 covered some additional services, especially telecommunications services (almost all Parties); 73 made improvements in the coverage of goods; World Trade Organization, Eighth WTO Ministerial Conference: Report by the Director- General, WTO Doc. WT/MIN(11)/5, at 6 (2011), e/min11_e/min11_5_e.pdf. It should be noted that not all of this additional coverage will necessarily be available to each of the GPA Parties, due to Party-specific derogations that may apply. 71. For further discussion see David Collins, Canada s Sub-Central Government Entities and the Agreement on Government Procurement: Past and Present, in THE WTO REGIME ON GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT:CHALLENGE AND REFORM The Parties concerned are the European Union, Japan and Korea. See 2012 GPA, supra note 1, app. I. 73. See id. 74. See id. 964 [Vol. 48

17 WTO AGREEMENT ON GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT included the full range of construction services, subject to relevant thresholds; 75 and lowered some of the thresholds applied under the Agreement, notably those applied by Israel, Japan, Korea and the Netherlands with respect to Aruba The Revised GPA Text As the second major outcome to the renegotiation, the text of the Agreement, and in particular its procedural and transparency rules setting out minimum standards for public procurement in each of the GPA Parties internal procurement market, was modernized and its governance elements strengthened in important ways. 77 The revised GPA text crystallizes current best practices in government procurement that are agreed upon by and acceptable to all GPA Parties and was at the same time harmonized with other applicable international instruments. In order to ensure that its aims of creating open and transparent procurement markets are achieved in practice, and to ensure that its guarantees of national treatment and non-discrimination are not subverted, the GPA incorporates detailed requirements regarding aspects of the procurement process. The latter include matters such as: (i) notices; (ii) conditions for participation; (iii) qualification of suppliers; (iv) technical specifications and tender documentation; (v) time periods for tendering and delivery; (vi) the use of negotiation and limited tendering; (vii) electronic auctions; and (viii) treatment of tenders, and awarding of contracts. 78 In general, these provisions are intended to ensure that the parties procurements are carried out in a transparent and competitive manner that avoids discrimination against the suppliers of other parties and thereby ensures that market access commitments are not nullified. Inherently, these provisions extend beyond-the-border and are designed to have a direct impact on internal procurement market regulation in Parties economies. The basic principles and many of the elements of the 1994 Agreement have been maintained in the 2012 Agreement. Yet, the revised 75. See id. 76. See id., Thresholds Indicated in Annexes 1, 2 and 3 of Appendix I to the Revised GPA, WORLD TRADE ORG., (last visited Nov. 14, 2017). 77. See Anderson, The Conclusion of the Renegotiation, supra note 5, at GPA, supra note 1, arts. VI-XV. 2017] 965

18 GEORGETOWN JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW text contains various improvements. For example, the revised text significantly streamlined various provisions of the Agreement. To make the text easier to understand it contains an extensive list of defined terms. 79 In contrast, the 1994 text left open the meaning of most terms, thus potentially creating ambiguities. 80 The provisions of the revised text have also been re-ordered to follow typical procurement processes more organically. Overall, the language of relevant provisions has been simplified and overly complicated provisions have been shortened. A further aspect that was emphasized and that engendered some changes to the GPA text was the desire to enhance flexibility for Parties in the implementation of their procurement systems, where this does not jeopardize the Agreement s goals. The GPA needs to accommodate a variety of national procurement systems. While the foregoing was also true for the 1994 text, the need for flexibility was felt to be more acute in regard to the 2012 text and is recognized explicitly in the Preamble to the revised Agreement. The Preamble observes that the procedural commitments under this Agreement should be sufficiently flexible to accommodate the specific circumstances of each Party. 81 To achieve this goal, multiple new flexibility mechanisms were introduced. First, certain exceptions that several Parties included in their Appendix I Annexes to the 1994 Agreement are codified in the revised text, thereby ensuring flexibility with regard to specific areas of concern. 82 Second, references to the methods of open tendering, selective tendering and limited tendering are no longer treated as exhaustive under the revised Agreement because Article IV:4 makes clear that procurement is to be conducted using methods such as those specified. 83 Third, the new provisions dealing with qualification of suppliers now allow for the optional use of so-called multi-use lists to rationalize qualification processes. 84 Additional flexibility is also provided for sub-central and other entities that are, in some respects, required to comply with less stringent requirements than central 79. Id. art. I. 80. See 1994 GPA, supra note 1; see also Sue Arrowsmith, The Revised Agreement on Government Procurement: Changes to the Procedural Rules and Other Transparency Provisions, in THE WTO REGIME ON GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT:CHALLENGE AND REFORM, supra note 15, at 285, See 2012 GPA, supra note 1, pmbl. ( Recognizing that the procedural commitments under this Agreement should be sufficiently flexible to accommodate the specific circumstances of each Party.... ). 82. See id. art. II See id. art. IV.4(a). 84. See id. art. IX [Vol. 48

19 WTO AGREEMENT ON GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT government entities. 85 Furthermore, the provisions on technical specifications are modified to expressly authorize procuring entities to use specifications to promote the conservation of natural resources or protect the environment, thus ensuring due scope to address a common policy concern. 86 The revised text also takes into account modern procurement practices, such as the use of electronic tools, and addresses questions of availability and interoperability of different systems and software; 87 the availability of mechanisms to ensure the integrity of requests for participation and tenders; 88 and the maintenance of data to ensure the traceability of the conduct of covered procurement by electronic means. 89 The minimum time periods stipulated by the Agreement have been adapted to modern practice and shorter notice periods are now permissible when electronic tools are used. 90 Shorter time periods have also been allowed for recurring contracts, states of urgency and where the goods and services being procured are available on the commercial marketplace. 91 Another important feature of the revised text, examined in greater depth in Part III below, concerns its improved transitional measures for developing countries. 92 The importance of these provisions derives not only from their relevance for development, but to GPA Parties professed desire to encourage accessions to the Agreement by other WTO Members, including developing and transition economies. 93 The increment in the total value of market access opportunities secured by the Agreement that could result from future accessions to it has been estimated to be in the range $440 billion -$1,127 trillion annually Id. arts. VII.1.5, IX.12, XI Id. art. X See id. art. IV.3(a). 88. See id. art. IV.3(b). 89. Id. art. XVI.3(b). 90. Id. art. XI See id. art. XI.4(b)-(c), XI For an in-depth discussion, see Anna Caroline Müller, Special and Differential Treatment and Other Special Measures for Developing Countries under the Agreement on Government Procurement: The Current Text and New Provisions, in THE WTO REGIME ON GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT: CHALLENGE AND REFORM, supra note 15, at 339. Whether particular WTO Members have the status of developing countries is not strictly defined in WTO law. Rather, this is largely left to selfdeclaration and negotiation. 93. See 2012 GPA, supra note 1, pmbl. ( Desiring to encourage acceptance of and accession to this Agreement by WTO Members not party to it... ). 94. See Robert D. Anderson, Anna Caroline Müller, Kodjo Osei-Lah & Philippe Pelletier, Assessing the Value of Future Accessions to the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement: Some New Data 2017] 967